"Unconventional writing style make this an unusual mystery."

It's the early 20th century and Claude Monet sits on his London apartment balcony painting the fog-shrouded city. Below in the Thames, two women are fished from the murky river both with the same stab wounds and other marks of abuse.

Inspector Garrety is investigating and his one, slim lead is a young British diplomat who discovers the second body. People are concerned a Jack-the-Ripper copycat is roaming the streets looking for victims.

This book has multiple, detailed story lines, multiple points of view and changes from third person to first person. The chapters are short and, at first, don't relate to each other. I found this book difficult to read as the plotting was slow and Monet's history repetitive. For a mystery buff, the attention to detail and unconventional style Jakeman uses to tell this story may be a part of the enjoyment of unraveling the story.

Reviewed by Shayne Sawyer
Courtesy Old Book Barn Gazette
Posted February 16, 2004

Summary

London, 1900: While Monet paints the wintry mists over the Thames, the bodies of two young women are dragged from its murky depths, arousing fears of a return of Jack the Ripper...

By now a celebrated and successful artist, Claude Monet returns to London to paint his famous Thames series. Nostalgic for his earlier visit in 1870, the old man busies himself with a frenzy of creative activity. Little does he know, however, that his haunting canvasses will act as a backdrop to a series of savage killings. Oliver Craston, a fledgling diplomat at the Foreign Office, happens to be nearby when an unrecognizable body is pulled from the Thames—and from then on, he's unwillingly drawn into the police investigation. Meanwhile, with anti-French sentiment running high in London, the Foreign Office wants Craston to keep a close eye on M. Monet and his son, who are staying at the Savoy Hotel. But none of the men knows that the source of the horror—a horror beyond even the imagination of an artist—stalks the floor above M. Monet's suite. Jane Jakeman not only takes us into a fascinating historical era with a compelling suspenseful story, but explores the human drives toward creation and destruction—and the universal struggle to understand the visions of each other's seemingly alien souls.